Frances slows; anxiety grows

Posted: Saturday, September 04, 2004

By Tim ReynoldsAssociated Press

STUART, Fla. - Hurricane Frances lost some steam and hesitated off the Florida coast Friday, prolonging the anxiety among the millions evacuated and raising fears of a slow, ruinous drenching over the Labor Day weekend.

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Downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, the storm was expected to come ashore with up to 20 inches of rain as early as this afternoon - nearly a day later than earlier predictions.

For the 2.5 million residents told to clear out - the biggest evacuation in Florida history - and the millions of others who remained at home, Frances' tardy arrival meant yet another day of waiting and worrying.

"It's all the anticipation that really gets to you," said Frank McKnight of Wellington, who waited four hours at a hardware store to buy plywood. "I just wish it would get here and we could get it all over with. I want to know now - am I going to have a house left or not?"

A hurricane warning remained in effect for Florida's eastern coast, from Flagler Beach south almost to the state's tip, and Gov. Jeb Bush declared a state of emergency for all of Florida.

At 8 p.m. EDT, Frances was centered about 200 miles southeast of Palm Beach. Gusty wind began to buffet the coast, and Florida Power & Light reported 170,000 customers lost power. Service had been restored to 110,000 by 6 p.m.

As Frances pounded the Bahamas, its top wind fell to 105 mph from 145 mph a day earlier. And its march toward Florida slowed to about 4 mph. The storm's lumbering pace and monstrous size - twice as big as devastating Hurricane Andrew in 1992 - mean Frances could spend hours wringing itself out over Florida, causing disastrous flooding.

"This system has really slowed down a lot," said Eric Holweg, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The threat comes three weeks after Hurricane Charley killed 27 people and caused billions of dollars in damage in southwestern Florida.

Frances might linger for two cycles of high tide, meaning a double whammy of storm surges expected to be 5 to 10 feet. Inland flooding in cities and along lakes and rivers was possible for much of the state.

Floridians had been braced for Frances to arrive Friday, but instead the weather was sunny and balmy along much of the coast into the afternoon. Surfers dotted the beach in Miami, while in Palm Beach County, streets and highways were nearly deserted.

It was the calm before the storm.

"These skies are just teasing us," said Anna Mullings, searching for plywood in Palm Beach County.

In Miami, which was expected to escape the worst of Frances, winds at the leading edge toppled trees. Farther north, in Davie, a gust peeled half the roof off a mobile home, but no one was hurt.

Among those evacuated were about 3,000 state inmates and approximately 500 patients at more than a dozen hospitals. When 12 shelters reached capacity in Volusia County, officials sent new evacuees elsewhere and opened three new shelters.

Frances is expected to come ashore along the middle of Florida's eastern coast, crawl across the state as a tropical storm just north of Tampa and weaken to a tropical depression as it moves over the Panhandle on Monday.

At a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, President Bush spoke of another potential round of devastation.

"I've ordered teams to be in position to help the good people of that state," he said. "But the best thing we can do here is to offer our prayers."

That sentiment extended even to the Mideast. In Israel, ultra-Orthodox radio stations broadcast appeals to say psalms and pray for the people of Florida.

Many schools and government offices closed, as did major amusement parks, the Kennedy Space Center and airports serving Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Melbourne.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency mobilized 4,500 workers, three times the number sent to help victims of Charley. Officials said they had enough people and supplies in the state to handle two disaster-relief operations at once.

The American Red Cross planned a larger relief operation than the one it conducted after Hurricane Andrew. Back then, the agency spent $81 million.

Hurricane season usually peaks in early September, and the ninth named storm of the season formed Friday in the far eastern Atlantic. Tropical Storm Ivan was about 865 miles southwest of the Cape Verde Islands with winds of 50 mph.